The discovery of a long 600 mile long coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon River has really changed the way I think about reefs. Coral reefs are normally found in tropical shallow oceans with a narrow range of habitat parameters including temperature, pH, salinity, and others. They also rely on invertebrate and fish associated species to graze on algae that could over grow on to corals and smother them.
The newly discovered reef at the mouth of the Amazon River at situated below the muddy water discharged from the massive river. So how can these sponges, corals, and other reef structures survive in a place that is under a layer of muddy freshwater? That is what researchers will gladly answer with more research.
The problem is that the reef is not safe as the Brazilian Government has sold 80 block to oil companies for exploration and drilling, 20 of the blocks are already producing oil. Oh, by the way, the blocks are located on top of the reefs. GREAT!!! We just discovered this unique reef that might help us figure out how to save other reefs and we might already be destroying them.
What will happen with the new reefs and the drilling? Who knows. the government could halt the drilling to save the reefs, but will they opt for the oil money instead? Only time will tell and perhaps the voices of the Speak Up For Blue community.
Speak Up For Blue TV:
http://bit.ly/sufbtele
Support the Podcast:http://www.speakupforblue.com/patreon
Shop for the Ocean:http://www.speakupforblue.com/shop
10 Ocean Tips to Conserve the Ocean:http://www.speakupforblue.com/wordpress/sufb_optinpdf
Show Notes:http://www.speakupforblue.com/session150
Welcome to the speaker for blue podcast session one hundred and fifty What's up everybody? Happy Monday? I hope you had a great weekend. I've got an amazing story for you today And has to do with the Amazon River as well as a long Chain of coral reefs discovered at the mouth of this river And this is an amazing discovery and I'll tell you why stay tuned for this episode of the speaker for blue podcast welcome to the speak up for blue podcast helping you get involved in ocean conservation and now here's your host He just discovered periscope and might be slightly addicted and drew luen Hey everybody welcome back to another exciting episode of the speak up for blue podcast your voice for the ocean I'm your host Andrew luen founder speak up for blue.com marine ecologist and self-proclaimed ocean printer That's right. I'm an entrepreneur and a scientist and everything I do as an entrepreneur involves protecting the ocean It's a bit of a social enterprise that I'm working on right here and starts with this podcast and building an audience and big building followers That really want to help conserve the ocean as much as I do and that's what we're really doing here is rebuilding this this community This what I like to call the speak up for blue community to kind of create and help guide people to become ocean stewards That will protect the ocean in their everyday life And as a part of that this podcast does a number of things it it makes you aware of different ocean news Which is what we're gonna talk about today. We also offer some tips and you know We help you implement action, which is what we're gonna be doing next Monday I am gonna dedicate the episode on the future of speak up for blue and how I'm really With the team that I have how I'm really and that we've created which has been fantastic How we're really gonna go forward with speak up for blue and make this really into a Phenomenal organization a phenomenal company. So I'm really looking forward to next Monday So stay tuned actually when you are gonna be listening to that episode next Monday because I'm pre-recording that episode I will be in Cuba with the family enjoying the wonders of Cuba and hopefully doing a little bit of diving - I'm looking for an underwater camera that is semi affordable if you guys know of an underwater camera that that I can purchase Please let me know you can you can contact me on at a Well, actually all I won't spell out the address because my email is pretty long But if you just go to the the show notes at speak up for blue dot com forward slash Session 150 you go to the website. I'll put my email in there I'll also put my contact information. You can just go to speak up for blue On speaker for blue in the top right corner. There'll be a contact. Just contact me. Let me know what you have Available or what you can recommend as a affordable Underwater camera that won't break. I'm just going reef diving Between 40 and 70 meters or sorry 40 and 70 feet and we'll see how things go there So thank you very much for that. So like I said before all the show notes for this episode will be on set at speak up for blue dot com forward slash session 150 I also before we get into this episode. I want to thank people. I really want to thank people in Giving me your feedback. I've had some great feedback from people on the show or opinions on the show Which is great whether I grew with them or not. I don't really care I just want people to talk about it And if I also had people ask me about you know how I'm doing this because I do have a full-time job I'm doing the podcast building this company So I'll answer that next week, which is which I'm really happy to answer And then I've had people who want to interview for podcasts and stuff like that and and really like the show and giving me great compliments So I am looking forward to that To seeing those that really makes me feel good because it shows that this podcast is actually reaching this audience I want to make this audience really one that is interactive Shares their experiences and shares their actions that they implement and that's that's really what? This this podcast speak up for blue is all about so thank you very much continue listening and continue with the feedback I really appreciate it You can also if you if you look at me look at me up on Facebook Andrew Lewin you can you know you can you can send me messages and stuff like that through Facebook or you can just send it through email It doesn't matter to me And I just really appreciate interacting with you guys and talking about the ocean because that's really what we love to talk about Right. That's all that's all we do here. So anyway, let's get into the show. This is an amazing discovery that I've never even Thought that could happen. So researchers and I'll go into the study in a second But researchers have discovered a huge chain of reefs That's that goes over the Amazon River the mouth of the Amazon River That means the Amazon River comes out spews out all of its fresh water and asteroid water into the ocean hundreds of miles into the ocean That's that's laden with sediment and all the stuff that they that it gathers from the Amazon and then below that about 60 to 120 meters There's a reef system there with sponges and reef-associated fish and other kind of corals that nobody expected to see Especially at the mouth of the Amazon River. So we're gonna talk a little bit about that a little bit about the description But also we're gonna talk about some threats that are actually threatening it right now And something that I that I think should have been done beforehand that doesn't get done enough in my View as a scientist as a biologist as a conservationist and I think this is something that we need to have governments all over the world Step up and they don't do it enough and they allow other things to happen which we're gonna go all into this episode So just want to get into that. Let's just talk about reef systems in general And why it's so surprising to see a reef at the at the mouth of the Amazon River So reefs are very are highly sensitive habitats They have a specific ranges that they require their habitat to be in so that means temperature salinity pH Sediment like turbidity clarity of the water There's just a lot of stuff that can really throw a reef off and usually what happens is the coral corals itself They are animals. They're not plants. They require they they host this photosynthetic algae called dino zuantelli and Sorry zuantelli not dino zuantelli zuantelli which are little dinoflagelets that are not done. No, sorry They're zuantelli, which are little animals phytoplankton that essentially use photosynthesis to survive they provide the color of corals to corals and so the coral skeleton in general is this calcified calcified skeleton that is white and without that zuantelli in there, it doesn't get color, right? So it loses its fleshy material and What happens is the byproducts of photosynthesis so the the once once photosynthesis goes in goes into play the the algae gets what it needs it it It gives it takes up carbon dioxide. It gives and it gives out it spews out Oxygen all that stuff and it's because of calcium that calcium goes into the body of the skeleton of the coral And it allows it to build that skeleton and it continues it to survive. So it's a nice symbiotic relationship Which is great when everything is working and functioning normally however, we all know that reefs are very sensitive So once those balances go off i.e. when climate change hits big and there's a lot of fluctuations in in In temperature there's fluctuations in salinity. There's fluctuations in sedimentation all that kind of stuff can throw off or pH as well it can throw off the Calcification process the the growing of those corals if a coral gets bleached because of heat Or pH or heat especially then it can't then zuantelli will get get up of the skeleton and it becomes white If the pH goes becomes more acidic so it goes down Then the calcium will not be available for the coral to build its corals. It'll eventually die Or just to build this skeleton Sedimentation can often suffocate the it can also just it basically just go over to just drape over the coral the coral the zuantelli cannot get the Photos cannot use photoset this because it can't get access to the sun and it just suffocates and dies essentially and it just it'll just Wither away. So all these things can play an important role and climate change is really screwing this system up Sea temperature is rising Calcification or pH is is is decreasing And then of course you've got sedimentation which is not necessarily associated with climate change, but that's associated more with man-made Or a more direct Man-made influence where or person influence human influence not trying to be sexist or anything But it's essentially humans its human activity And usually has to do with a coastal development or erosion along the along rivers and the coast And then that sediment gets into that those those particles get over get thrown over these coral reefs and then they end up dying So We have a lot of the potential problems with this one now in areas where and it's been proven We've talked about this on the show before in areas where it's remote And there's no access to really any kind of human influence or very little access to human influence coral reefs thrive They do really really well and the reef associate associated fish that help them keep algae down That can overgrow the corals and again prevent them from getting light Can really are really put at bay. So there's a bit of a of a habitat Or a habitat range that they need and then of course there's a number of reef species That are the reef fish and invertebrate species that help keep algae at bay so herbivores species and so forth So those reef associated fish and invertebrates are very important Of course, they're all linked You know once one goes down and the other goes up then it can throw off the equilibrium On both sides the habitat side the habitat requirements and the fish requirements and invertebrate requirements So a lot of that can really mess up a reef and of course now you throw in climate change And that just you know so the habitat requirements are just thrown right off and everything's out the window And then you got a human influence that's happening on top of that That it gets even worse. So with with climate change With sea surface temperature What's happening now say in the great berry reef? We're 93 percent. We just read an article 93 percent of the corals are bleached just a week ago They said 90 percent of the corals are bleached now it's 93, which is super scary Um, what's happening there is that they notice especially when they especially when they they they looked at the remote reefs That are doing well even in the face of climate change. They know is that The climate change events like bleaching are acute events their events that happen within a specific time span And they can have severe damage depending on how long that time span is but eventually we'll go away hopefully It has in the past But you have the chronic cases the chronic influences which are normally direct man-made like sedimentation water quality zone nutrients um phosphorus and nitrates combination allow Algae to grow you have those those chronic Sort of influences always hitting the reefs So when you have an acute event such as bleaching And then you have that recovery process that's supposed to happen if you are chronically Allowing those water quality issues to keep coming in sedimentation and nutrients to keep coming into the reef They'll never fully recover or they may not recover at all So there's a big problem there when you take out that human those human direct chronic cases or chronic influences Then you have you allow the chances for uh, the reefs to Recover right and so and that's more of a natural process of course climate change throwing in is not natural Um, but it's it's it still allows them to to recover So we have a lot of problems with that now in comes this new discovery Okay And you would think that anything at the at the mouth Or the base I like to call the mouth. So where the basically the spot where the amazon river Spuse out all this fresh water mixed with salt water Uh water out into the ocean hundreds of miles out into the ocean uh You have it at that spot You would have discovered a huge 3600 square mile so that's 9300 square kilometers for all my metric friends Uh coral reef system That is found below the muddy waters off the mouth of the river of the amazon river That's huge That's massive You can't get any better than that 600 mile long reef Uh, it stretches from the french french guyana to brazil's I'm gonna try and pronounce this Maron how maron how state Okay, and it's approximately between 30 and 120 meters deep That is amazing and now i'm looking at a map and i'm going to use this picture I hope that people don't mind i'm going to use this picture Um, it's actually a satellite image of where the amazon comes out And you can see all the muddy waters that that that are that are just stretched along there below that at 30 meters to 120 meters you have a number of Corals and sponges Which is phenomenal because you don't expect those corals and fun and and sponges to be there so We're normally like I said before when we're used to seeing corals in shallow clear waters that have access to sun And the reef associated species are in there and it's just amazing So now because this area is very is highly muddy It's not clear They didn't expect that you would see a corals in a freshwater plume no less so the salinity is really far down But essentially they found over 60 species of sponges 73 species of fish spiny lobsters starfish And more and and other and much more reef life. So that's just Amazing like if you imagine what we're what we're used to seeing for reefs to now what we see now Um is just amazing because essentially the reefs are the amazon jungle of the ocean It's a highly diverse Habitat that not only has coral reefs, but essentially establishes a habitat that allows numerous species of fish a highly diverse set of species efficient and vertebrates to hide and use the resources In in this area so you have a lot of fish that have our very narrow and thin that can hide in the crevices You have moray eels that can actually go in and live in the crevices of the of the griefs Um, you have other animals that have long noses long rostrums that can actually go in Or just or mouths that can actually go in and pick off different parts of the reef and you just have all these wonderful species that have adapted to a reef system to survive And then you're now you put them in in one of the areas where you have no idea you had no idea Existed because it's one of the muddiest Outpours in the world. So that's just ridiculous Absolutely ridiculous. So there is um now the reefs aren't exactly along the coast, but they are it's almost like a barrier reef I guess um that are just outside and there's a graphic now I found this article on the guardian the guardian.com and i'm going to share the The article on the show notes at speak up for blue.com forward slash Assession 150. So there's um, there's some sponge bottoms. There's some roadless bottoms. There's um Other areas that have more than 50 carbonate fact fact fraction, which is essentially hard bottoms that could have structures Restructures and then there's there's restructures themselves and they take up a lot of area And this is a couple maybe 50 miles off off the uh or say Let's say Proximately i'm just looking at the map here Yeah, approximately 200 kilometers off the off the coast of brazil Which is amazing Um, I keep saying that but it is it's just phenomenal And you wonder how the mud really plays a role of factor in this now sponges are really known to be nutrient sponges That's what they're known for they suck up nutrients and they survive off of that Um, but you can't have too much, you know nutrients You can't have too much mud because they can get or they can get smothered and they can't get overgrown So it's you know, this is just the initial discovery Now it's a matter of how figuring out how this reef structure actually functions Because you really want to know, um, how it's going to how it survives how it's been done so Well, um and how how it's done so well for so long in this naturally uh, sort of muddy type waters Uh, so this is going to be something that's going to be studied over and over and over again the person the co-author petrisha yagger who's a Professor of oceanography and climate change at the university of georgia Uh, she she was she's quoted she goes I was flabbergasted as were the rest of the 30 oceanographers traditionally our understanding of reefs have focused on tropical shallow coral reefs which harbor biodiversity that rivals tropical forests Um, and then says here, but the reef no sooner found is said to be in grave danger We're gonna talk about that in a sec. Um, but it's unbelievable how this reef is here and it's special Because it's in a special area. It's not found in sort of what we called Oh, quote-unquote the traditional areas that we're used to in shallow tropical areas, right that have clear water So this is something that's that's very interesting to scientists and it needs to be studied more. However, let's go in to the problem The major problem that we have with these reefs Is the fact that there is a high pressure of oil and gas development within this structure 80 the Brazilian government has sold 80 blocks for oil exploration and drilling at the mouth of the amazon Which in its in its just in that without knowing the discovery of the reef The fact that there's something that's going on at the mouth of the amazon, which is one of the greatest rivers in the world Uh, it's always had already has its problems. You're gonna add oil and gas development in there So it's sold 80 blocks for ocean exploration and drilling and which in which 20 of them are already producing oil You know some of it is right on top of the reef Now my question is here right off the bat is how did this oil and gas get approved? Without doing a survey of what was on the bottom Usually what happens and what's supposed to happen is the environmental assessment is supposed to happen It's supposed to go on and you're supposed to when you're especially with an oil and gas company You're supposed to survey the bottom you're supposed to look at all these different types of um stakeholders who are involved in this area. So you're looking at fishermen. You're looking at um, or fisher people the fishing industry Uh, you're looking at tourism. You're looking at Agriculture farmers everything like that of what's supposed to be What could be affected by oil and gas or oil exploration Which usually and then of course you got the environment itself is what special structures are there What's what's interesting about the area and whatnot? Now that usually requires a survey or two or a number of years of a of a uh Sort of a consistent And representative survey of the area to to look at things that may or may not be affected by this oil exploration And of course then you have risk assessments if there is a spill What's going to happen to the stacos? What's going to happen to the environment? What are the potential? Um, you know, you do modeling of the area of the current systems And so if there is a spill you know where that mo where that oil is going to go And is it going to go in these interesting structures? Now I mentioned this because I always wonder it's like why are these structures not? Protect or why weren't these why weren't these restructures found in the environmental assessment? Why weren't they surveyed? And i'll tell you why and this happens all the time and it should stop and this is a case where and this is a prime case of where this uh Type of work should stop or lack thereof should stop The assessment wasn't done properly a survey wasn't done All they did is they they recorded museum statements or museum records of areas in and around the The uh the amazon river and where they they want their their blocks to go So their their oil blocks so essentially they actually never did a physical field survey they never went out in the field they never surveyed the bottom Um for environmental structures or anything special. They just basically went on expert knowledge of of the area Which obviously they this is because this reef structure was just discovered. Nobody knew this would happen And yes, the likelihood of it happening is very low, but it happened and not only did it happen it happened in a huge way That's 600 mile chain That's massive and now it's already under pressure You know one of the one of the most unique reefs in the world Discovered and it's already under pressure because there's an oil. There's an oil exploration going on. That's already producing oil in 20 of the blocks Now one thing the map in the article didn't do is they didn't overlay the the oil blocks on top of the reef to find out where these oil blocks are Now technically the oil companies have the right to drill there because they were actually given permission and they were they were sold the block So it's up to them. However, now what the structure comes in what is going to happen? What is going to what is going to be the future? Do they have to reassess these blocks? Does the government will the government reassess these blocks? You have to remember that this Selling of the blocks is huge money for the government And they could take that money and they can put it into something else What what I don't know and I haven't really looked into that But they could put it into something else whether they're going to put it into protecting this reef or researching this reef I don't know I doubt it because they just discovered it But now that they have it what's going to happen and what should what should our role as the people What should we make it happen because? What should what should we do to make this happen to make sure that this reef is protected is unique it needs to be researched We need to find out why it's doing so well. What's what's the makeup of the species? We need to get our v's down there We need to really look at this area this reef system and find out why it survives so long And now that it has oil and gas drilling which may Take away some of the habitat just in the in the fact of drilling if there's a block that goes over it or the pretent There's a high potential that these reefs will die if there's a spill So one of the most unique reefs in the world that we don't know anything about we already have under pressure That in itself is a dangerous situation and it's all because the government didn't make the oil company Do is due diligence and and i'll tell you the oil company. It's not up to the oil company to do it They don't want to do it. They do not want to put in the money to put it in a study To tell the government whether they should or should not continue their oil oil exploration They're in it for one thing. They're in it for the oil exploration They're in it to make money and they don't want to have to deal with any of this crap This is what they this is how they think And it's up to the government to make sure that they actually do these kind of surveys Right now, there's a whole thing of the politics of okay. Well, if they don't do the surveys the oil and gas Industry won't give them money and that money is huge for a lot of organizing for a lot of countries because they get the tax money Money from it. They it provides short-term jobs Um a little stability to the economy if that's possible these days And so forth and I I know this because Canada was going through the same thing because we have a lot of oil and gas reserves And we want to you and a lot of people want to use them because it provides short-term jobs the old admin Government administration put all their eggs in one basket and went to oil and gas and then now because It's a worldwide market and what happens in one part of the of the world will affect this part of the world Now our economy can economy is kind of recuperating because the oil and gas prices went down so low people just pulled out So what does this really mean for brazil? What does this really mean for the offshore waters of brazil the amazon river This reef structure. I don't know But I would like to see some action taken so that you can have more Exploration of this reef system. That's what I would like to see I would like to see and I would like to see better environmental assessments for oil companies Rigorous environmental assessments, right get highly detailed Government should be asking a lot of them because they're the only should be put on them on the companies for putting this stuff into place It's very difficult and expensive to go down 30 to 120 meters to explore a 600 mile reef To even discover that 600 mile reef. It's very expensive and to just do it off a whim just like well There might be something there is very is very expensive and it means it doesn't usually happen That's probably why they haven't discovered it so far But when you have oil and gas when you have an oil company that wants to do exploration It is up to them to show that they will not harm Any kind of bottom habitat they should be required to do surveys they have the money And it doesn't cost them that much when they look when you look at the profits that they make But oil companies are very cheap especially when it has to come down to regulations And it's up to the government to make them do that now you'll see oil companies pull out of certain countries because they're going to ask to do that But let's be honest. We're moving towards a system away from oil. Anyway, does it really matter? It are short-term jobs better for environmental environmental impacts that we're going to have to pay for years and years and years I don't know Right, but this is something that we should very highly consider and it should be debated in government and should be addressed in government all over the world You know, plus you're looking at the fact of the cost to climate change how oil and how the oil industry and gas industry is costing climate change no matter what So one this is an amazing system that we've discovered. This is fantastic I love the fact that we keep discovering these things two holy crap guys. Let's not ruin this thing already We just discovered it. Let's not put oil and gas industries in there and say let's just drill the hell out of this thing and Potentially cause more damage to this very unique habitat that is at the mouth of the amazon river So that's all for the show today. I want to hear your thoughts guys on what's happening Go to this the show notes speak up for blue dot com forward slash session 150 if you're on your cell phone you can actually go on your on your app in the phone and just click on the Link in in those notes or you can go on the website speak up for blue dot com forward slash session 150 It's one of those things where it's like hey man, you have to You know, we have to do this and comment on this and we have to talk about this because this is something that Needs to be talked about and people need to listen to and be more aware of what's happening and In the process of oil exploration what happens and what is led up to it the environmental protocols that have to go through and different governments Handle things in different ways and it really depends on how much they rely on oil exploration money oil money gas money natural gas Whatever you call it. It's all the same. It's a fossil fuel burning industry that is going nowhere It is not going to be the future of this world the tesla three just prove that because now more companies are putting in development Of fully electric cars. There's going to be recharge stations throughout the north america, which is amazing And i'm sure europe is already ahead of the game in that respect and we're just going to see a difference in in the world And so is it is it worth looking for short-term games at the cost of environment long-term environmental effects? That is up for us to decide and that's how in the way we decide is voting for Politicians and parties that actually care about the environment and care about our long-term Sort of well-being instead of just their short-term I guess time in power. So that's sort of my Thoughts on this on this episode on this discovery and on the threats to this discovery I want to hear yours go to speak up for blue.com forward slash session 150 to let us know what you think Uh, and we always love to hear your thoughts. Thank you very much. This is episode 150 people. This is amazing I really want to thank you guys for listening and supporting us. We're well over 100,000 downloads approaching. I think we're at about 150,000 downloads So we're approaching that 200,000 mark, which is awesome Keep sharing keep subscribing and keep reviewing if you like it go on iTunes review the show I heard google play just opened up shows for podcasts. I'm going to try and get in on that I don't know how that works But if you have an android and you listen to google play they now offer podcasts or there's an app for it And you can you can download it through there. That will be very shortly and i'll keep you I'll keep you updated on that. So thank you very much for listening. You have been listening to speak up for blue podcast I am your host, Andrew luen. Happy monday. I hope you have a great week And we'll see you on wednesday for an interview about sharks Talk to you later, happy conservation [Music]
